Wednesday, 25 March 2009

An Audience With the Head of the Whole Country

The picture says it all. For the first time in her 57-year reign, as Head of State the Queen has called the Governor of the Bank of England for private discussion. There is no down-playing of the event. 'According to a Palace aide, the audience was one of a regular series of meetings she holds with key officials.' (Times). Well, with respect, no it wasn't, not once in 57 years.

“It is part of a general process designed to keep the Queen abreast of a whole range of issues that are relevant. Economic pressures are dominating our daily lives, so it is something very topical, very relevant. It is not that it was not important in the past, but the circumstances at the moment are unique”. That sounds more like it. The Head of State, in the unique circumstances of the moment, is consulting with key officials of the state.

About what? It is hardly necessary to have a tutorial in financial affairs from the Governor of the Bank of England - fine academic and teacher though he is. We know that the Bank and the Treasury are aghast at what is happening to the United Kingdom's finances, and in the economy. There are rumours that the Chancellor is shaken by what he has found inside the Treasury, the eleven years of Brown's hidden agenda effected by the obsessive micro-management and interference in every aspect of government that has helped create this disaster. The pressing on with policies derived from economic theory (itself severely questioned in the field) without reference to other understandings, other political and state priorities, as well as established and lawful governance practice, the realities of real life and the use of power, illuminates the kind of mindset that the Prime Minister possesses. The unrefined emotional spectrum, the damaging singleness of purpose, the conviction springing from ill-founded belief in intellectual grasp. The desperate defence of a narrow understanding against the evidence of a terrifyingly complex world.

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was taken apart in the European Parliament yesterday. He is on his way to New York and then to the countries of Latin America to reiterate his eviscerated 'vision' while the Governor of the Bank of England and the Treasury plainly argue that even if his 'vision' were correct there are no means to implement it in the United Kingdom. Other countries have rejected his ideology and analysis and his calls for action they regard as wrong.

The Prime Minister enjoys no confidence. He enjoys no confidence from his Party, from the offices of state, no confidence from this country, no confidence abroad. If Parliament cannot do its duty and pass the formal vote then less familiar but equally valid pressures to obtain his resignation will be used.

His 'summit', in its bizarre to the point of discourtesy venue, calling on others to do what he cannot do himself, must be his last hurrah.

A Further Thought

That is a lovely room. It looks like my morning room. Much, much grander of course, but the fireplace, and the lamps, the very English full-of-pretty-objects-ishness of it. The paintings there will be glorious too, and the carpet is delicious; but all the same, despite its size and richness, that room can be found in many English houses. I'm glad she doesn't have to spend all her time in a gilded barn. And even though that is an official photograph of an official meeting, it gives off an air of liking and pleasure in the company of the other between the two of them.